Yes, exactly.
Hence:
We’ll likely see that whole situation easing up with 1.1 since it’s going to be an end-game update…
Yes, I know.
So the answer to us basically was:
‘Here, have this mechanic which is a absolutely fantastic base-idea with ridiculous amounts of potential for it, but we’ll give it to you as a pile of steaming hot horse-shit!’
Yes, because the acquisitioned item is the reward for dedicating the time to the specific faction and hence not having to bonuses of the other one!
Which is a 100% sensible and reasonable thing to ask for.
You won’t be able to afford a BiS item for your character if you play CoF after all since it costs too much gold. And if it’s a non-LP unique then it’s entirely the fault of the devs for making them available so early on with their intended system.
Inside a cycle the whole situation wouldn’t even naturally occur since availability isn’t there at the beginning of it, meaning at the start you wouldn’t be able to afford for example… a Wraithlord’s Harbour.
And heck, even then… that’s what the Rank-based system is after all there for isn’t it? Making sure you only have access to specific types of items at specific times?
Maybe… just maybe they could’ve put a bit of thought into that system and put easy to acquire items first, following by harder to acquire ones later. Including legendaries and LP items.
Because if you tell me now ‘Ohhhh… but they did!’ I’ll start laughing at you. a 1 LP ‘The Kestrel’ or even a 2 LP of it is not as rare as a Wraithlord’s Harbour. For the first you need Rank 8, for the second you need Rank 3.
They simply fucked up the system, it’s that easy, then following with arbitrary limitations for personal usage.
It’s not that hard to understand how it went wrong and why the current state is simply not something acceptable in a common gamer’s mind.
Yes… yes you’re 100% right.
But doesn’t address his point of:
stands strong still.
All what you said can be taken as preparation for more content in the game and keeping the overall retention time in mind with it. And if not then it’s even worse thought out then beforehand imagined rather then better.
Why?
Because they had all humanly possible options for a proper trading system at hand, every ever possible iteration of one could’ve been thought up. From a heavy time investment solely for the system to acquire anything, to high entry points for listing items, to limiting the listing amounts, to limiting the acquisition rate based on pure experience gain and creating a baseline of power-level for each item… and instead? They did a very interesting but less then functional trading system in the current iteration.
There was no need to create a solo-play faction at all! SSF is a self-imposed challenge of not using all methods available in a game and should be treated as such! Trading is a societal mechanic which not inherently speeds up item acquisition if implemented right.
Just go ahead an increase the needed acquisition value for a 1 LP item times 10… LP 2 times 50, LP 3 times 100 and LP 4 times 1000 and you’re gone and done! But noooooo… instead we’re talking about absolutely other topics when the baseline stands that it’s just badly done for what it should feel like.
Don’t get me wrong! The base idea of it is absolutely and utterly fantastic! The execution is the problem in its current state and needs massive rework.
A HC character is a specific challenge, not the norm.
A great example is a souls-like game! And I always found they don’t do their death-punishment fully properly since they’re not including the loss of items for it as well.
You loose all your experience if you can’t get to a save-point, right? They are intentionally made this way. You should actually loose all acquired items since then too.
It’s because you haven’t been rewarded with anything unless you find one of the save-points, you’re simply shown what you’ll have if you manage it.
The same goes for experience loss. Taking away earned rewards and consequences are not the same, there’s a psychological difference between them.
It’s also the reason why people repeatedly complain about the Path of Exile death penalty at higher levels, because the experience loss at those stages seems not reasonably achievable for the common person. The time investment to achieve it being too long.
So: How long is the reasonable time investment until I can use my rewarded item in LE hence? Ah right… never, so it feels like shit.
It is though!
There’s a darn good reason why some people enjoy roguelikes, HC characters or any of the other stuff. Because it’s a self-imposed challenge needed to overcome.
In LE there’s nothing to overcome to be allowed to do it, you just can’t.
It’s a limitation. You never had the chance to use it in the first place.
Owning an item fitting for your character though has the chance to be in that position.
If I for some reason get a LP 4 item in CoF versus buying one in MG the only difference there is a little lovely marker in the bottom right laughing at you and mocking you for having bad luck. That’s it. It feels arbitrary to the mind of a player since yes… he’s acquired it and should be reasonably be able to use it.
This wouldn’t be such a big mess if not all of your characters would loose all in that faction earned favor for switching. Still a glaring issue then… but at least sliiiightly alleviated. But still, it’s there and not good.
We can at best argue that their faction-based unique item bases are a limitation, which I would say 'That’s fine, they can only be acquired there and nowhere else and hence you’re enforced to stay aligned with them to do so.
But that’s not the case as for all other items… you’re not told to do so in general.
Imagine that:
You work for a company for a year and save up tons of money you get from them, because your reward for investing time into them is the payment you get.
Now you quit the company.
Now they say ‘Sorry, you aren’t allowed to use the money you got from us since you’re not aligned with us anymore, tough luck! Oh, and everything you bought with it? Yeah… give it to us’.
You take away the earnings. Not nice, not enjoyable, you ‘wasted your time’ after all.
Nonono… be clear here, that’s the important difference.
I have the results.
I enjoy the benefits only while being aligned with them.
That’s the vast difference.
Not the horror… it’s the whole point! You have a stop-gap anyway!
So the other limitation is arbitrary or at least badly implemented.
Once more, LP 2 Kestrel versus non-LP Wraithlord and the respective time during your playthrough you can acquisition it.
Is a limiter is built in that limiter needs to be in line with progression, not a completely unhinged one from that.
Results, not benefits.
But since you don’t know what that means:
Joining something and having a bonus ability is a ‘benefit’, you loose those when you quit.
Joining something and taking home your earnings through those’benefits’ before quitting is a ‘reward’. Because you own stuff, if you own stuff you don’t want it taken away from you.
PS:
A reward is something you can earn through a benefit.
A benefit is something you don’t own and is leased to you for time
Buying and item through any means makes you own it. Neither MG nor CoF give them to you for free, you have to put effort into it hence and earn it.
